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This is my Head of School blog. I use it to reflect on my own learning, my wonderings about education, and questions about how to shape our school, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill. I also use it to share with the community things I experience at school. It affords me another way to be present with our ever-growing community of learners.

I Missed Socrates Again!

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I hear that Socrates visited the fifth grade this week.I missed him again this year.I need to work with the fifth grade teachers
to get this on my calendar—I can’t believe I didn’t get to hear him.

I asked the teachers what he talked about, and they said he
wandered into class looking for a friend and ended up staying for about 45
minutes to talk to the students.They
have studied him in their history class—they knew a lot about his life, his
ideas, his trial, and death.Seems that
they had done a mock trial not long ago.So they were full of questions, I hear.

I hear Socrates was full of his own, too.Not surprising.

They called him wise and he pressed them to say what wisdom was.I hear this led to a fascinating exchange
with Leah about a man who knew the truth and the good and always did it.Socrates had never heard of this Jesus, but I’m
told he was riveted.

He left the class with two Greek phrases to ponder:

ούκ οίδα,
which means “I don’t know.”Not sure
where this conversation went, but I think it had something to do with a horsefly.

The other thing I heard the students
muttering when I saw them afterwards was γνῶθι σεαυτόν.They said it had something to do with the
hardest thing in the universe to understand.I wonder what that is.

As Trinity gets bigger, it’s impossible to
make it to every event, but I’m going to make a point of seeing the sage next
year if he returns.

I think the speech Dr.Denton gave was very fun and exiting to all the 5 grade class i also liked that he always stayed on topic and it was a good use of my time. I would like it to be longer next time we have a speech i would like it to be longer .Still a good speech over all

I had a lot of fun today! my most favorite part was when Socrates talked about when he was in jail. He asked the question,"Which one hurts more, hurting yourself or someone hurting you?" I learned a lot but I am sad you missed him again. You'll get him next year!

Your blog was really cool!I really loved reading it. Thank you for letting us read and comment on it.It was really fun to have Socrates come talk to us today.It helped me learn more about him.I loved it!!

I really enjoyed reading your blog, Dr. Denton. Thank you for letting us read it.I really liked having Socrates come to our class because it gave me a clearer vision of what he was like to be around. I thought his questions were a little overwhelming.I think it was awesome how he always told the truth if he could help it-even his own punishment.He really wanted to see a wise person. I loved it!

Dear Dr. Denton,Thank you so much much for writing about fifth grade special activity with Socrates. I am really sorry you missed Socrates. I enjoyed learning about how truth, goodness, and beauty feed the soul and doing the opposite will harm the soul. I think that lesson will help me in situations in my later life. Hope you catch Socrates next year!

Dr. Denton,I'm so sorry that you missed Socrates! Thank you for mentioning us in your blog! I enjoyed getting to interact with Socrates and ask questions. All of what you said was similar to what we have learned about him in class. Hope you catch him next year!

Dear Dr. Denton,Thank you so much for mentioning us in your blog about yesterday! I really enjoyed learning from Socrates and it all interested me very much. Hope you catch Socrates next year! See you around school!

Thank you so much for writing on your blog about who came to talk to us yesterday! I am so sorry you missed it this year and you have never seen him here before. One thing I learned was that goodness, beauty, love, generosity, and happiness fuels our souls so that means all the things that bad things ruin our soul. Again I am so sorry you did not get to meet him because you would really like him!

Dear Dr. Denton, I'm sorry you missed Socrates,but I'm just telling you he was very funny and i hope you can meet him next year, I enjoyed listening to him talk about his life. He asked a lot of questions! Oh, and thank you for letting us comment on you blog. It is very interesting. I'm getting off topic. Socrates taught us some greek words which were very cool. Thanks again!

Dr. Denton, so sorry you missed socrates again. He was really funny and called me Mr.Syllogism. He talked about knowing about not knowing and what feeds your soul. He also asked a lot of questions. I wonder if you will catch him next year? Thanks for making this blog. BYE

So sorry you missed Socrates! He did an extremely good job presenting. He used very good expression and asked lots of questions. He made some very good points on truth and other fruits of the spirit. I really enjoyed learning from his point of view. I hope you can catch him next year! Thanks again!

Dear Dr. Denton,Thank you for writing about us on your blog, sorry you missed Socrates. When Socrates came my favorite part was when he talked about oeautov, and I loved the message .....why do we know the whats right and sometimes do whats wrong? I also liked it when he talked about what fueled our soul. Hope you catch Socrates next year! Thanks again!

Dr. Denton, thank you so much for letting us comment on your blog! I am so sorry that you missed Socrates again. He talk to us about being wise and smart and what it means. It really made me think. I really enjoyed him talking to us. And if you if you know him tell him that he needs to not ask so many questions. And I hope that you catch Socrates next year!

Dr.Denton, sorry you missed Socrates this year thank you for posting this on your blog!! I bet you would like Socrates. He was very funny and very wise. I enjoyed when he asked about things we could do it was fun! See you at school.

Thank you so much for letting us to view your blog. It's so cool! I really enjoyed seeing Socrates. He was really nice. I'm so sorry that you missed Socrates. Maybe you'll see him next year. He asked a whole lot of questions. He was dressed in a white tunic, and had a neat walking staff. Thanks again!

Dr. Denton, I'm so sorry you missed Socrates. I hope you see him next year. Thank you for letting us join your blog. I enjoyed Socrates. Learning about the soul was interesting. The questions were similar to what we learned in class.

Dr Denton,I'm so sorry that you missed Socrates. I hope you catch him next year. Socrates was very smart and wise and he made a lot of important points. He taught us that the soul can be fueled by love, beauty, goodness, and kindness fuels your soul. Since he was Greek and the Greeks have a different religion but Socrates did not believe in the gods he looked for someone like Jesus. He died because he was forced to drink hemlock poison. But he didn't protest. I wonder why he didn't defend himself.

Dr. Denton-I wish you got to see Socrates!He told us a lot of neat stuff,and we also told him some things,too!He also asked a lot of questions.One of the things he told us was that it hurts you more when you hurt someone else rather than yourself.Another thing he told us is that if you realize that your not wise, then you really are wise because you realize that you don't know not even half the stuff God knows. Hope you get to see Socrates next year!!!!